Quote:
Originally Posted by ohhey
Why is it selfish to vote against something I think will be ineffective? I fully support good urban rail projects, but I don't think we have good leaders behind this proposal, and I think this plan will have low ridership. Building this route could potentially do more harm than good. If rail is right for Austin, a new plan will materialize sooner than you might think.
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I voted "no" mostly for the reasons summarized above. I kept hearing the argument that we have to have rail, so a bad rail plan is better than none at all. Or the other argument that says we must approve this or else we won't get another chance for a decade. I don't buy either of these statements. A bad plan is worse than no plan. This little fragment of a light rail system will need many more votes for future bond issues in order to branch out and service the broader community. If it's done poorly and appears to be ineffective then future projects are more likely to be voted down. Approval of this bond issue could hurt future bond issues. Look at the ridiculous Red Line, its mere existence probably cuts into support for rail because it is such an expensive debacle that erodes trust in Cap Metro and the ability of light rail to solve transportation problems.
On the other hand, I don't agree about the need to service UT students. They have free bus lines that run at frequent intervals, and they're not apt to be commuting to many places served by rail. Of course many thousands commute to UT for work, so the main campus is a major commute destination, as are many nearby properties such as the future med school and capitol complex. The current proposal does a good job of providing access to those destinations, but it does so from areas that are not major sources of commuters to those jobs.
But my main overall objection to prop 1 is that I think it's an expensive commitment to a piecemeal half-hearted public transit strategy and is far too small and timid. I'm holding out for something big --- like going aboveground or underground. There isn't space here on the surface of Planet Austin to accommodate all the traffic. We need to bury 35, put in a subway or tram system, do something highly innovative that will be adaptable to a population that will certainly double and may even triple within this century. Rinky-dink little Disney light rail cars aren't gonna cut it when we join the ranks of major global cities. We need futuristic solutions that are designed to handle at least double our present population, with an infrastructure that is scalable upward from there.
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